1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to compact camera modules, particularly including one or more wafer level hybrid optics, a through-hole substrate and/or a flexible or rigid-flexible printed circuit, and/or a flip-chip or wire bond imager, that feature an advantageously thin design.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic camera is a device that converts a scene from optical to electronic format. An electronic camera generally includes an optical train of one or more lenses, which focuses light from the scene onto an image sensor. The image sensor converts incident photons into a computer-readable electronic file format. Many image sensors cannot perform this conversion unaided and are instead frequently used in conjunction with further passive and sometimes active components.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,858,445 and 7,449,779 describe wire bonded wafer level cavity packages for image sensors. The '445 and '779 patents describe certain embodiments that include a microelectronic device having a chip with an active region at a front surface a plurality of contacts exposed at the front surface outside of the active region. The device further includes a lid overlying the front surface. At least one edge of the lid includes an outer portion. One or more recesses extend laterally inwardly from the outer portion of the lid. Contacts are aligned with the recesses and exposed through them.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,936,062 describes a wafer level chip packaging technique and microelectronic elements packaged by the technique. In an exemplary embodiment, a microelectronic element having a front face and a plurality of peripheral edges bounding the front face has a device region at the front face and a contact region with a plurality of exposed contacts adjacent to at least one of the peripheral edges. The packaged element may include a plurality of support walls overlying the front face of the microelectronic element such that a lid can be mounted to the support walls above the microelectronic element. For example, the lid may have an inner surface confronting the front face. In a particular embodiment, some of the contacts can be exposed beyond edges of the lid.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,593,636, 7,768,574, 7,807,508 and 7,244,056 describe examples of structures where the electrical height of a device is nested within the optical height to decrease the physical height. Each of the above patents is incorporated by reference. It is desired to have an advantageously compact camera module.